Hand: operates the fingers. Fingers do the typing, therefore, the talking.
Foot: the common phrase for speaking out of turn is, ‘putting your foot in it’.
Mouth: “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself and your religion is worthless.” (James 1:26)
“Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.” (Proverbs 10:19)
“The mouths of fools are their ruin; they trap themselves with their lips.” (Proverbs 18:7)
Disease: A malady that does the person no good and needs to be destroyed as soon as possible, or it could be fatal.
The problem: a lack of verbal self-control, or not saying things in the right way.
As a writer, I think a lot, and those thoughts often spill out of me before I have sorted them out and decided which ones actually need to be shared. The bible makes no secret of calling this foolishness. I have always been hasty of speech, but I have learnt to be patient when it comes to churning out books. One does not need to get one’s thoughts and stories out to the public as a matter of haste – one should take one’s own time and learn to wait on the Lord and hear what he is advising should be shared.
No doctor can help me control my tongue and no medical practitioner can show me the difference between what is worth saying to people, and what is best kept to myself. Only Dr. Jesus knows this, and so when I write a chapter of a book, a piece of poetry or sometimes even a blog post, I tend to wait many months before pressing the ‘publish’ button.
One good thing about self-publishing with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is that its service is Print on Demand, which means a book is only printed when an order is made by a customer. Therefore, if the author realises they want to add, remove or correct something, this can be done with minimal fuss.
I had this dilemma with, A Manly Man. The required content for the book wasn’t my natural forté. My husband had asked me to write something for men – the type of man who would find my other books too girly to be given as a gift.
When I first published, A Manly Man, I shot my mouth off to quickly about its release (WhatsApp status) and a friend promptly ordered a copy before I’d even seen it in the flesh myself.
When my copy arrived, I was mortified. I spent the whole day cringing, because it was rubbish. I’m not just talking about typos and grammatical errors, but the content itself. It was awful.
How did I miss this?
The answer to this is simple. By getting too excited about publishing my next book and running ahead of myself (and God).
I immediately refunded my friend, telling her that it wasn’t worth the money. She was shocked, but it was the truth and I believe that one should be honest about one’s failings and mistakes.
Another difficulty I had with the book was that I had been asked to make it directly evangelistic. Yes, we are all commissioned by Jesus to “go into all the world and preach the good news…”, but some Christians are naturally more bent towards the pastoral side of things – encouraging those who already have a relationship with the Lord.
I didn’t want it to come across as ‘hellfire and brimstone‘, but in doing so, the first few drafts made it sound spiritually wishy-washy; like I was making light of sin and the need for true repentance.
Christian writers can be so scared of coming across as, ‘shove you in the corner and ram Hell down your throat‘, that we can easily slip into the other extreme by treading on eggshells so lightly that the reader comes away unaware of the holiness of God and his need to punish unrepentant sin.
It took more than 11 more drafts before I was happy with it. I don’t mean drafts on Microsoft Word – I mean that I literally published it again and again and again; each time thinking, “Ah, that’s better.”
I’m pleased to say that I am happy with it now, but what a journey it’s been! Kudos to KDP for allowing me so many edits.
If I have any advice for novice authors, it is, do not be in too much of a hurry to see your stuff in print. Book publishing is not to be rushed. It is better to take time and really know that what you are saying is what you want to convey.
I wish you all the best with your projects.
